Monday, October 3, 2011

Should you take your kids to see a movie?

As a rule, I do not frequent the theaters. However, once in a great
while there is an exceptional movie worth seeing and worth paying
theater prices in order to support the movie producer so that they will
make more great films.

Recently, two such movies have made their debut in the theater. The first is entitled "Seven Days in Utopia."
The writer/producer is Dr. David Cook – who has a long history of
publishing Christian education materials. This rather unique movie
begins with a recently-turned-pro golfer who is doing well at his first
official tournament when he blows it on the last hole in a totally
humiliating fashion. In anger, he drives off and has a car accident
which leaves him stranded in a small community called Utopia while
awaiting his car to be repaired. Here he meets an older golfer who also
had once played the pro circuits and from whom he learns important golf
lessons and even more important lessons for life. The movie is very
engaging and will easily captivate you – even if you are not a golfer.
Unfortunately, there is at least one profanity clearly heard in the
movie and there might be others said under the breath but they are not
truly noticeable. Still, it all works together to give a breath of
realism to the environment of the movie. The most remarkable thing
about this movie is the ingenuity of its ending. At the end of the
movie, you are left with one nagging question which requires you to
visit a particular website in order to find out what happened just after
the screen went black. When I returned home from the movie, I visited
the website which instantly answered my curiosity but also delivered
another important life lesson. There was an opportunity to click a link
to allow me to interact with that life lesson by taking action on what I
have learned. Clicking that link took you to a page with a very clear
and succinct presentation of the Gospel. This was ingenious. I would
highly recommend taking your friends who may not know Christ to see this
movie and then encourage them to do the follow-up to see how the movie
ended. This is a highly creative way to share the gospel in a relevant
fashion. Not many theaters will carry this movie, but find one that
does not go see it.

The best movie of 2011 – and perhaps of the century – is the movie Courageous. Sherwood Pictures has superseded its previous three films – Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof. Flywheel
revolved around the lines of used car salesmen and what happened when
the owner of the business decided to run his business by God's
principles. Facing the Giants focused on the life of a coach and his football team and what happened when they committed their ways to Christ. Fireproof showed the restoration of a seemingly impossible marriage in the life of a fire captain. With Courageous,
we see God working in the lines of five men – four of whom are Sheriff
deputies. It is rated PG-13 for its scenes of action and violence.
However, there is not a single word of profanity in this movie. For
those concerned about the style of music, there is no dominant rock beat
in any of the music until after the closing credits begin to roll.
This movie should be mandatory for every man to see. It highlights the
duties we have as dads to disciple our own children. But it also
highlights the duties we have the mentor those who were not our children
but who have need of a father to speak truth into their lives.

Many are not aware of the significant of definite articles in Malachi 4:6 – "And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart
of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a
curse." God says that his profit will come to turn the
heart of fathers to THE children and to turn the hearts of the children
to THEIR fathers. When a young person comes to you for counsel,you
should always seek to honor their father and to turn their heart toward
their father whenever possible. The heart of children should be turned
toward their own dads. However, God expects me as a man to not only
love my own children, but to love all children. Therefore, he says that
his profit will turn the hearts of fathers to THE CHILDREN. God does
not want us to only love her own children but also the children but do
not really have a dad. Do you take time to mentor children whose father
is absent – whether through divorce or death? You should. God
expects it of you.

I would also encourage anyone who has sons who were not saved to take their sons to see Courageous.
It will give them an opportunity to see the reality of men living
Christian lives fleshed out in front of their faces. I believe this
will ultimately result in them being more willing to receive Christ.
Unfortunately, in our day and time, many young people regard
Christianity as a woman's religion – often because the only real
Christian they know well is their mother. Give your sons an opportunity
to see men trying to live out their faith in a real and practical way.

Now
Christian parents have a real challenge when taking their children to
see a really great faith-based movie. The movie can be perfect, but you
have to endure the previews. When I took my family to see the movie Courageous
in the Premier 14 theater in Burleson, Texas, the vast majority of
previews were family friendly. Still, my wife had the children look at
the floor and keep their ears closed until the previews had concluded.
She did this, because she knows that you never know what to expect from
the movie previews that precede the feature film. Still, we are
thankful for that theater in Burleson Texas for being sensitive to run
family friendly previews prior to the movie.
The following
evening, however, I saw the Courageous movie again at the Cinemark
theater in Mansfield Texas. This theater totally lacks sensitivity to
the nature of their audience. They showed previews with mature themes,
one movie with an open mockery of Christianity starring Dolly Parton,
and several movies with an occult or Satanic theme. This theater will
likely be losing my business in the future.

So what can you do as a
parent? Let me make a suggestion based on our own experience with eight
children. You have several alternatives:

Wait for the movie
to become available on DVD – and then you do not have to suffer through
the previews. Pros: you save money over the cost of going to the
theater and you get to miss the conflict in previews. Cons: you miss
the opportunity to support a Christian filmmaker at the theater (where
your attendance is essentially a vote for the theater to show similar
future films). You also typically have to wait longer to see the film
this way.

Get one or two of the most mature family
members to reserve the seats in the movie auditorium. When the
undesirable previews are over, Cindy text message (or call) to the other
parent or older child who are waiting with the younger children in the
hall to let them know it is now time for them to come in. They will
still have an opportunity to get into the auditorium before the movie
actually begins, but avoid seeing or hearing the previews.

Train
your children to keep their eyes closed in the years close during the
playing of the previews. This is probably the least effective
alternative since some sounds will no doubt reach your child's ears.

The
middle option is the one my wife and I have chosen to employ on several
occasions. My wife and I can sit in the auditorium until the previews
are complete and then we can notify my oldest at-home daughter to bring
in the rest of the children to take their seats.then we can immediately
turn off all of our cell phones so as not to disturb others during the
movie. This allows us to support a Christian filmmaker at the box
office, see the movie on the big screen, and still derive the important
spiritual lessons from a truly great movie like Courageous.

Courageous
will have you laughing until you cry, and then crying until you can
laugh again. It touches upon a plethora of human emotions and grabs
every man's heart from the opening scene. This is a must-see movie that
every man and every boy over the age of 10 should see. And this movie
has what may be the most succinct and clear presentation of the Gospel
that has ever been filmed. If you know a boy or a man without Christ,
take them to see this movie today. If you know a boy or man who claims
to be a Christian but is not living that life to the fullest, by then
movie tickets for this film today. I cannot stress strongly enough how
important this film could be to your life and the life of those you
love.